Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
Sorry, I meant that as a question. I want to know, from your experience, is there any matchup that is incredibly unfavorable for this deck?
Speedy attrition decks used to be tough, but they get a lot better with Delve. Burn was hard so I upped the Helixes in the MD and now it's fine. I guess Monoblack Control can be difficult if you don't draw a Cruise, but that's not really a deck. Bogles too.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
I suppose this is a case of "I can fix my boggles matchup, but id need a 12 card sideboard plan so id just rather dodge it"? It's fair if that's the case, im just wondering if anything can be done at all?
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
I suppose this is a case of "I can fix my boggles matchup, but id need a 12 card sideboard plan so id just rather dodge it"? It's fair if that's the case, im just wondering if anything can be done at all?
It's not unwinnable. And given the universality of our counter suite (i.e. "Counter target noncreature spell" - everything runs noncreature spells), nothing is actually unwinnable for this deck (one of the things I love about RUG Delver strategies in general; game against everything!). Modern is home to a lot of decks that force opponents to either draw their hate and win, or not draw their hate and lose. Dredge folds to Rest In Peace, and Bogles folds to a Spellskite. Here are the cards I find most useful in that particular matchup:
Again, Bogles is one of those decks that if you don't draw your specific answers, you lose. I think there are enough hate cards that I feel comfortable going into tournaments without having "12 sideboard slots" devoted to this one deck, but I'm also not expecting a lot of Bogles these days.
On a related note, I strongly encourage anyone who has trouble with any particular archetype to talk about it here. The toughest matchup for me so far has been Skred Red, when I do see it. Between Moons, board sweeps, and tons of spot removal (including a profitable way to deal with Tarmogoyf in the namesake instant), they can be pretty tough to pressure. That said, the matchup gets better with Delve, since you can trade off for awhile and then draw 3 and win. I wouldn't be surprised if a version with Cavern of Souls begins to see success in this field of Delvers.
Can we take a minute to rejoice, by the way? Modern is FULL OF DELVER! I've been playing this little guy since 2012 and he's finally made it to the format's forefront.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
My thoughts exactly. Ive been unmovable on naya midrange in modern for almost 3 years now, but if wizards is going to print recall in modern, im going to play it. Wishful thinking, but I hope fate reforged gives us delve time walk.
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
At least we should enjoy playing with ancestral delvecall aka treasure cruse / dig through times until the ban list change in February. I really think that those two spells made modern much more fun to play, unfortunately I fear wizards does not see it this way...
Philip
If they do get banned, we'll still have the great Hooting Mandrills. win/win as far as I'm concerned, I invested in like 60 foil copies at 30 cents each.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Any advice for the ur delver/monastery matchup? Im thinking on running a few Electrickery in SB to help killing pyromancer and tokens
Cute tech. I wouldn't run more than 1, though. I like 3 Lightning Helix MD right now to deal with all the Delver decks, and I bring in additional Delve cards for those MUs. Forked Bolt and Engineered Explosives are good, too. Skip Spellskite, he just gets Vapor Snagged. And don't forget your artifact hate!
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Went 2-2 last night at FNM, with my previous list. I lost against WUR control and BGw Rock (so much removal for me), and I won vs Burn (easy with Helix and Feed) and another wur control.
I feel the midrange matchups (wur and rock) something difficult. Thinking on running more Cruises.
@ashtonkutcher ; mind you share your list? Are you playing the full suit of four cruises?
Sure am. Midrange matchups used to be difficult, they get laughably easy with Cruise (but WUR has always been easy for me? Just play your threats one at a time and force them to *** to kill a cat, it's a joke). I also feel like we have the edge against other Cruise decks, which is huge right now. Here's my current list (but I change it every couple days). Up to 3 MD Helix right now to beat Delver and Burn. Pyroclasm surprisingly great against lots of decks (Delver, JA Ascendency [which I smashed at FaceToFace on Monday], etc.). Also tried cutting a Remand for a 2-2 split with Leak, and maaaaaan Leak is good. I like having equal parts of both right now.
Before the list, a quick note for those of you struggling to beat enemy Treasure Cruise: Remand is not your best option. The graveyard fills back up very quickly. You want a hard counter like Negate (or Deprive, which is the next card I'm trying in here). That way, you're the only one Cruising all game and opponents can never catch up to your card advantage.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Round 2 vs. Angel Pod (2-1) G1 lasts forever but he never draws Birthing Pod. Does eventually grind me out with Redcap and Metamorph copying Redcap to slay my dudes and deal lethal (I'm a turn short; he's at 5, I have 5 lands, Snap in hand, Helix in Grave, and Bolt on top). G2 he goes Noble Hierarch into Wall of Roots into Voice of Resurgence, but still crumbles to two baby Goyfs (1/2) who get huge off a Thoughtseize taking Snapcaster Mage. G3 we trade removal until I resolve Treasure Cruise and take the game away.
Round 3 vs. Monored Burn (2-1) G1 I Gitaxian Probe on the play and see a hand full of Bolts. He hesitates with my mana up but burns me out anyway. G2 I land an early Goyf and follow with Spellskite. He Bolts me, I redirect. He Shard Volleys Skite, I Spell Pierce. Eventually he takes care of the Skite with Incinerate after I redirect a Rift Bolt, but forgets that Artifact grows Goyf and loses to exactly 5 damage. G3 I get two Skites and hold him off until turn ~6, when I draw a Cat and ride to win.
The deck is really well-positioned right now. I'm of the opinion that you can't reliably fight Treasure Cruise, so you should just run it; we can do that, and still have what I consider a good MU against the other TC decks. I'm also the only dude at my FNM meta running the card other than some friends who play my brew and this one guy on UR Delver, who actually stalled out a friend playing my same Counter-Cat list tonight (painful to watch; David had Isochron Scepter with Lightning Bolt and drew the finals to topdecked Remands).
That said, we do suffer from some consistency issues. I almost only lose games because of manascrew/flood, so I'm thinking of moving that Faithless Looting to the main. It finds lands when you need them and cycles dead fetches when you don't, all while feeding Treasure Cruise. Hard to make room, though; I think I'll move a Helix to the side and add a Feed the Clan there to make up for it.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
I'd like to get into this deck, and most of it makes sense to me, but is there a reason to run two probe instead of two more thought scour? I'd almost prefer the instant speed and the life loss seems pretty significant with so much burn around, though it does help spot for counters.
Also, unrelated, but is that quote in your sig about delver? Cause if so that's hilarious.
I'd like to get into this deck, and most of it makes sense to me, but is there a reason to run two probe instead of two more thought scour? I'd almost prefer the instant speed and the life loss seems pretty significant with so much burn around, though it does help spot for counters.
Also, unrelated, but is that quote in your sig about delver? Cause if so that's hilarious.
No, it's about Tarmogoyf And yeah check the Primer for more info on Probe. Try other cards if you want, but free + info are relevant enough that I wouldn't run less than 2.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
So I screwed up and had a 14 card sideboard... Wasn't thrilled about it. Wasn't an issue too much, but if I played this GPT again, I'd have another Feed the Clan there. The meta was like 20-25% Burn. It was disgusting.
Match 1 Affinity
He plays a turn 1 ornithopter, glimmervoid, sigal pest. I play a land. Turn 2, he goes to play mox opal and it eats a spell pierce. Misses his land drop and attacks for one. He eventually plays a second land and a steel overseer eats a spell snare. Game 2, I play a bolt on his Vault Skirge, and play a turn 2 Isochron Scepter with a Destructive Revelry. Doesn't end it immediately, but an ancient grudge played and flashed back in the same turn gave me the tempo boost I needed for Scepter to lock him out
Match 2 Pod
Flipped delver on turn 2 and played a goyf. Turn 3, path his voice and started the beat train. Pod met a pierce and delver/goyf super troup put him in the abyss. Game 2, 2 early goyfs put pressure, traded a bunch of spells and treasure cruise put it way out of reach for him.
Match 3, Burn
Probably not a good matchup for most delver decks, but nacatl survives searing blood and goyf is better than most burn. Game 1 saw him hit too many lands in a row and bought me enough time to get in. Game 2, a turn 4 4/5 goyf plus feed the clan into turn 5, snap feed forced a concession.
Match 4, boggles
On the play, probe saw a boggles hand and let me know what there was to fear. Delver and Nacatl x2 snuck past his boggle and spell snare killed coronet before it was an issue. Game 2, a land heavy hand drew more lands while he ran away with the game. Game 3, he mulled to 6, kept a 1 lander with Kor Spirit Dancer and enchantments. He never saw a second land.
Match 5, Burn
ID
Top 8 Match 1 Pod
Same pod player from before. He cleaned up after I stomped him, but he couldn't beat the cruise. Efficient beats and removal is very strong. Game 2, I had a scepter with boros charm under it. He tried to abrupt decay it so i made it indestructable. Never tapped down for a threat, domed him for 4 every turn and held up permission and removal until he was dead
Top 8 Match 2 Burn
A far more focused burn deck than the first one I played. A single Shrine of Burning Rage locked the games up in 2 and 3 for him, but game 1 was dominated by Helix, Snap helix.
Post GPT Thoughts
This deck is so cool man. It's so strong. I think it has game against so much of the field, and no match felt completely unwinnable. That being said, I want to find a spot for 2 Geist of St. Traft in the side. Reason being, I think burn has a reasonable matchup against us, and Delver, snap, and nacatl are all great targets for Searing Blood and Searing Blaze. I think that a fast clock like Geist of St. Traft, that blanks 8 of their cards and can go to town on them is probably strong enough to warrant sideboard play. The fact that it works with Feed the Clan is pretty cool too, and it seems like an auto win vs tron and uwr maybe. I know it was discussed earlier as to why Geist isn't what this deck wants but maybe just having a hexproof clock is good enough?
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
Post GPT Thoughts
This deck is so cool man. It's so strong. I think it has game against so much of the field, and no match felt completely unwinnable. That being said, I want to find a spot for 2 Geist of St. Traft in the side. Reason being, I think burn has a reasonable matchup against us, and Delver, snap, and nacatl are all great targets for Searing Blood and Searing Blaze. I think that a fast clock like Geist of St. Traft, that blanks 8 of their cards and can go to town on them is probably strong enough to warrant sideboard play. The fact that it works with Feed the Clan is pretty cool too, and it seems like an auto win vs tron and uwr maybe. I know it was discussed earlier as to why Geist isn't what this deck wants but maybe just having a hexproof clock is good enough?
Thanks! Nice report. Geist isn't for the maindeck but it could definitely work in the side, try it out. Sorry there was so much Burn (not that you did badly, it just sounds like an unfun meta).
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Honestly, I was shocked. Usually there is 1 or 2 burn decks, not every 4th player. I think everyone just wanted to play a deck they can spike an event with.
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
I'm considering taking this deck to a tournament and I'm almost guaranteed to play 1-2 matches against UWR control or midrange. I playtested this deck in this matchup and it seemed to be a bit struggling against UWR. Any suggestions how could I tweak MD or SB to fight such decks?
Any snapcaster path to exile deck is going to be tough. One of the better ways to beat them is with non creature permanents (planeswalkers). Geist would probably be a good answer too, but you have to leave in some burn to remove snapcaster blocking.
Isochron Scepter with something useful is normally gg against UWR. They have no way to deal with this card and just loses to it. If there is another game afterwards they will/have to board in artefact hate just for Scepter, which is nice since it is otherwise a dead card.
@KeirandtheWhale, nice job
Greetings,
Kathal
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
I'm considering taking this deck to a tournament and I'm almost guaranteed to play 1-2 matches against UWR control or midrange. I playtested this deck in this matchup and it seemed to be a bit struggling against UWR. Any suggestions how could I tweak MD or SB to fight such decks?
Any snapcaster path to exile deck is going to be tough. One of the better ways to beat them is with non creature permanents (planeswalkers). Geist would probably be a good answer too, but you have to leave in some burn to remove snapcaster blocking.
You guys must be playing this wrong. UWR Control is practically a bye. I'll write up a section on it for the primer in the next couple days, but here's what you want to be doing:
- Play your threats one at a time. Force the UWR pilot to out-tempo himself dealing with your clocks. Getting all your guys killed at once sucks, but an opponent sinking 4 mana into an uncounterable Wrath of God to kill a single Delver of Secrets shouldn't upset you in the slightest. So play them one at a time! More threats will come. So will Treasure Cruise, and most UWR lists haven't exactly adapted to the Delve meta and find themselves tremendously vulnerable to that kind of card advantage from Tempo. Steady, one-creature pressure wins the game against this deck.
- Play around their disruption. Gitaxian Probe obviously helps worlds here, but if you don't have it, UWR isn't that hard to read. If you know you can slide a threat in next turn, but not this one, save it. If you don't see an opportunity in the near future when you can slide your Goyf in under countermagic, and have no pressure on the table, just play it. UWR will draw lands forever as you draw one-mana Russet Wolves and Concentrate. Generally you'll have a hand full of gas and they'll have a grip of lands, and after you make them sub-optimally play all their cards, you'll be way up on advantage and can just roll over them.
- Maximize your own disruption. In other words, have a plan. Know (this knowledge best achieved by grinding) when you need to hold up mana to protect your threat, and when it's more important to save that Spell Snare for a Snapcaster Mage. If you have another threat in hand, let them deal with your guy. Let them tap out to counter your next threat if you can Treasure Cruise. I've won many games against UWR Control on just two or three lands to their 10. You're gaining 4 mana worth of tempo by Spell Piercing a Batterskull (not to mention a Sphinx's Revelation), and that particular interaction should stand for the whole matchup. Another good example: Path to Exile on Celestial Colonnade (which, incidentally, leaves you with a window for Tarmogoyf/Treasure Cruise). If they're throwing Electrolyze at you on your End Step, just take two damage. Save your countermagic for the cards that really matter, like those that remove your guys or put UWR up on cards. Be patient, and all those fancy cantrips will draw them a whole lot of Flooded Strand.
UWR Control gets a bit trickier if they have an intimate knowledge of your manabase, in which case you should hover around 3 perfect lands (i.e. complimentary Core Shocks and basic Island) to avoid getting cut off White or Red via Tectonic Edge. Luckily, the UWR pilot has no idea what the hell he's playing against most of the time.
In case that's what you meant by "UWR Midrange," the Restoration Angel-Blade Splicer deck poses much more of a threat. Against them, slam a threat very quickly and try to get in for as much damage as you can before they stabilize the board; after that, pour your resources into burning their face, but it's one of Counter-Cat's tougher matchups.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Primer update. Added UWR Control to the Matchups section, bumped BGx to Favorable, and acknowledged Burn and Tempo in Sideboarding. An insane card I've recently discovered for the Burn matchup, discussed in detail in the Primer:
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Yo Ashton, figured I would join the conversation as well.
For those who didnt catch yet, I am the friend that plays this deck (albeit a little bit different version than his) at his local FNM. But the thing is that I also test it on MTGO as well so I could see how it fares against the Magic online metagame.
So far I managed to 3-1 the only daily I could get the time to do last week with it. Losing R1 to storm but winning the next 3 ones to Mono-red, UBR control and scapeshift. Otherwise, I play it in the Tournament Practice room whenever I get the time.
On that matter, here are three pointers for those who want to run it in daily events or in other competitive modern events (a more complete post will follow when I will have the time in the next few days to play a 2nd daily event):
1. Lots, lots, lots of delver decks
If you go look at the winning decklists of daily events posted on the mothership you will see that multiple copies of the U/R Delver deck are present. As long as Treasure Cruise is Legal, it will be the deck to beat. Therefore:
-Deck building and sideboard must absolutely be done with this matchup in mind.
-Practice, practice, practice.
2. Burn
This matchup can be hell if you are not careful, especially with the high fetch/shock lands we run. Ashton's latest tech for burn is interesting as long as this deck is present in great numbers ( which is quite the case since it is so cheap to build online). The versions running treasure cruise are dangerous if you let them resolve it so keep that in mind.
3. Scapeshift
Recently, I heard that there has been versions of scapeshift that answered the delver decks by using Summoning trap, fetching Emrakul in play. When that happens, we are pretty much done for. If this tech takes off, be ready to play accordingly.
Good Evening everyone,
Just 3-0'ed tonight's FNM with this list. (Ashton was here too, got 1-2 ed, lost to two ppl who were playing the decks I lent them ;-D Better luck next time !)
DISCLAIMER : This deck is tuned to our local metagame where there are not a whole lot of tier 1 decks. The one I play competitively is a bit different than that.
Games :
R1 : Mono Green Devotion
I got surprised as he played Leyline of Lifeforce on both games, which could have been trouble if he ramped, which he never could G1. Sided out most countermagic and went in burn mode. G2 went as I burned his mana dudes and died to Delver.
R2 : Mono Black midrange/control
I didnt know how to act against his deck at first. He runs a lot of spot removal + Mutilates, combined with gigantic beasts like demigod of revenge or huge drain spells (Sorin's Vengeance for example). G1 he killed many of my threats that I presented until I managed to stick 3 Wild Nacatls. He had a demigod of Revenge racing me but finally I managed to find multiple bolts and a Snapcaster to finish him off the turn before the Demigod kills me.
G2 was an interesting one. He used his removal to kill my stuff, I burned him whenever I could with bolts and helixes and Path to Exiled his threats. Which led to a standtstill. After many turns back and forth, I topdecked an Isochron Scepter with only a Remand and Snapcaster in hand. I casted the Scepter, Imprinting the Remand. This led me to draw 1 extra card every turn by remanding his spells or, if he chose to not cast anything, to cast my own snapcaster and then remanding. I managed to draw a good 15 extra cards on my way to win this game right on time.
R3 : Esper control
G1 was a long drawn out affair after a turn 1 delver on the draw. Some goyfs, a batterskull, multiple spirits and soldier tokens and a treasure cruise later, i managed to get him down to 1. But then he casted a Sphinx of the Steel Wind against my board of 1 Instectile Aberration, 1 Goyf and 1 Snapcaster. Coming my turn I hoped the topdeck would save me. aaaaaannnnnnndddd... Lightning bolt !!!!
G2 I mulliganed to 4 on the draw, keeping a 1 lander. I then proceded to come back from his early aggression with timely spells and topdecks until time is called. I managed to stabilize at 2 until an Helix arrived to keep me alive long enought for the extra turns to end.
What this tournament showed is that the deck can handle a good variety of strategies in the format. A good metagame call and proper Sideboard preparation will be key to this deck's success in Competitive tournaments.
Until then, I will get back to testing the competitive version of the deck on MTGO and figure out the last kinks to fix on the deck.
Good Evening everyone,
Just 3-0'ed tonight's FNM with this list. (Ashton was here too, got 1-2 ed, lost to two ppl who were playing the decks I lent them ;-D Better luck next time !)
Actually I smashed your second deck (the "Anti-Delver" one), only lost to Dredgevine I never anticipate that deck since it just gets dominated by T1 Modern strategies, so I don't pack any SB hate. If it starts Dredging, whatever, I lose. You should come to Face to Face Monday, the players/decks are much more serious.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Where do you guys play? Will you be at the f2f super series in calgary this november? If so, would love to meet up with you guys (and maybe buy you a beer)
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
Where do you guys play? Will you be at the f2f super series in calgary this november? If so, would love to meet up with you guys (and maybe buy you a beer)
No Standard for me, but I'm headed to GP New Jersey in November. We play in Montreal.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Standard Mardu Midrange Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Alright, so lets say your commander is Riku of Two Reflections. Combo commander, to be sure, but lets push this into the realm of absurd. You cast Palinchron and do your Riku thing to make infinite mana because we're going to need it. Forget about your extra Palinchron tokens. A million flying 4/5s is boring. So now you cast Enter the Infinite, because drawing your deck is important. Follow it up with a Obstinate Familiar because not decking yourself is equally important. Laboratory Maniac could work here too, but we're gonna go some more levels deep. Cast a Greater Good because we want a tasteful sac outlet. Follow this up with Parallel Lives, Doubling Season,Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator, Mycosynth Latice, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Copy Artifact giving you 6 double token effects. Here's where it gets fun now. Cast a Reef Worm. Sac it to greater good and get 256 Fish, which you sac to get 65,536 whales, which you sac to get 16,777,216 Krakens. Are we done yet? Nope! Cast Thromok the Insatiable, devouring all your krakens to make a 281,474,976,710,656/281,474,976,710,656 Thromok. Where do we go from here though? Let your opponent cast Death Mutation on him! Why, that's 7.20575940x10^16 tokens! Good thing we have Body Double to make another Thromok the Insatiable who will be a 5.19229686x10^33/5.19229686x10^33! Seems big enough, but not for us! Since we're red anyways, lets cast a Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and a Fire Servant! Now it's time to Fling your guy, dealing a spicy 4.15383749x10^34 damage to your opponent. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 3x10^23 stars in the known universe. You dealt more damage than there are stars. That'll give your opponent something to think about. PROTIP: Dodge Spellskite decks
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Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Spell Pierce - counters anything.
Spell Snare - counters Coronet.
Destructive Revelry - hits dangerous enchantments and helps you race.
Ray of Revelation - takes out two problematic permanents.
Spellskite - ends the game.
Again, Bogles is one of those decks that if you don't draw your specific answers, you lose. I think there are enough hate cards that I feel comfortable going into tournaments without having "12 sideboard slots" devoted to this one deck, but I'm also not expecting a lot of Bogles these days.
On a related note, I strongly encourage anyone who has trouble with any particular archetype to talk about it here. The toughest matchup for me so far has been Skred Red, when I do see it. Between Moons, board sweeps, and tons of spot removal (including a profitable way to deal with Tarmogoyf in the namesake instant), they can be pretty tough to pressure. That said, the matchup gets better with Delve, since you can trade off for awhile and then draw 3 and win. I wouldn't be surprised if a version with Cavern of Souls begins to see success in this field of Delvers.
Can we take a minute to rejoice, by the way? Modern is FULL OF DELVER! I've been playing this little guy since 2012 and he's finally made it to the format's forefront.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Went 4-0 again at my local last night with the full set. Card is just bonkers.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Before the list, a quick note for those of you struggling to beat enemy Treasure Cruise: Remand is not your best option. The graveyard fills back up very quickly. You want a hard counter like Negate (or Deprive, which is the next card I'm trying in here). That way, you're the only one Cruising all game and opponents can never catch up to your card advantage.
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
3 Arid Mesa
1 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Forest
1 Island
Creature (15)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Thought Scour
2 Remand
2 Mana Leak
3 Lightning Helix
Sorcery (8)
2 Serum Visions
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Spellskite
2 Boros Charm
2 Negate
2 Destructive Revelry
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Pyroclasm
1 Forked Bolt
1 Faithless Looting
1 Spell Pierce
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Engineered Explosives
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Round 1 vs. Leviathan Brew (2-1) Quest for Ula's Temple, Sage Owl, freaking Clockspinning. Man this was silly. G1 I stomp him, G2 he activates Quest while I'm stuck on one land and starts dropping 9/9s. G3 he can't beat Destructive Revelry.
Round 2 vs. Angel Pod (2-1) G1 lasts forever but he never draws Birthing Pod. Does eventually grind me out with Redcap and Metamorph copying Redcap to slay my dudes and deal lethal (I'm a turn short; he's at 5, I have 5 lands, Snap in hand, Helix in Grave, and Bolt on top). G2 he goes Noble Hierarch into Wall of Roots into Voice of Resurgence, but still crumbles to two baby Goyfs (1/2) who get huge off a Thoughtseize taking Snapcaster Mage. G3 we trade removal until I resolve Treasure Cruise and take the game away.
Round 3 vs. Monored Burn (2-1) G1 I Gitaxian Probe on the play and see a hand full of Bolts. He hesitates with my mana up but burns me out anyway. G2 I land an early Goyf and follow with Spellskite. He Bolts me, I redirect. He Shard Volleys Skite, I Spell Pierce. Eventually he takes care of the Skite with Incinerate after I redirect a Rift Bolt, but forgets that Artifact grows Goyf and loses to exactly 5 damage. G3 I get two Skites and hold him off until turn ~6, when I draw a Cat and ride to win.
The deck is really well-positioned right now. I'm of the opinion that you can't reliably fight Treasure Cruise, so you should just run it; we can do that, and still have what I consider a good MU against the other TC decks. I'm also the only dude at my FNM meta running the card other than some friends who play my brew and this one guy on UR Delver, who actually stalled out a friend playing my same Counter-Cat list tonight (painful to watch; David had Isochron Scepter with Lightning Bolt and drew the finals to topdecked Remands).
That said, we do suffer from some consistency issues. I almost only lose games because of manascrew/flood, so I'm thinking of moving that Faithless Looting to the main. It finds lands when you need them and cycles dead fetches when you don't, all while feeding Treasure Cruise. Hard to make room, though; I think I'll move a Helix to the side and add a Feed the Clan there to make up for it.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Also, unrelated, but is that quote in your sig about delver? Cause if so that's hilarious.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Arid Mesa
2 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Forest
CREATURES
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyc
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Treasure Cruise
3 Serum Visions
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
2 Thought Scour
3 Lightning Helix
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Boros Charm
2 Spellskite
2 Negate
2 Feed the Clan
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Wear//Tear
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Spell Pierce
So I screwed up and had a 14 card sideboard... Wasn't thrilled about it. Wasn't an issue too much, but if I played this GPT again, I'd have another Feed the Clan there. The meta was like 20-25% Burn. It was disgusting.
Match 1 Affinity
He plays a turn 1 ornithopter, glimmervoid, sigal pest. I play a land. Turn 2, he goes to play mox opal and it eats a spell pierce. Misses his land drop and attacks for one. He eventually plays a second land and a steel overseer eats a spell snare. Game 2, I play a bolt on his Vault Skirge, and play a turn 2 Isochron Scepter with a Destructive Revelry. Doesn't end it immediately, but an ancient grudge played and flashed back in the same turn gave me the tempo boost I needed for Scepter to lock him out
Match 2 Pod
Flipped delver on turn 2 and played a goyf. Turn 3, path his voice and started the beat train. Pod met a pierce and delver/goyf super troup put him in the abyss. Game 2, 2 early goyfs put pressure, traded a bunch of spells and treasure cruise put it way out of reach for him.
Match 3, Burn
Probably not a good matchup for most delver decks, but nacatl survives searing blood and goyf is better than most burn. Game 1 saw him hit too many lands in a row and bought me enough time to get in. Game 2, a turn 4 4/5 goyf plus feed the clan into turn 5, snap feed forced a concession.
Match 4, boggles
On the play, probe saw a boggles hand and let me know what there was to fear. Delver and Nacatl x2 snuck past his boggle and spell snare killed coronet before it was an issue. Game 2, a land heavy hand drew more lands while he ran away with the game. Game 3, he mulled to 6, kept a 1 lander with Kor Spirit Dancer and enchantments. He never saw a second land.
Match 5, Burn
ID
Top 8 Match 1 Pod
Same pod player from before. He cleaned up after I stomped him, but he couldn't beat the cruise. Efficient beats and removal is very strong. Game 2, I had a scepter with boros charm under it. He tried to abrupt decay it so i made it indestructable. Never tapped down for a threat, domed him for 4 every turn and held up permission and removal until he was dead
Top 8 Match 2 Burn
A far more focused burn deck than the first one I played. A single Shrine of Burning Rage locked the games up in 2 and 3 for him, but game 1 was dominated by Helix, Snap helix.
Post GPT Thoughts
This deck is so cool man. It's so strong. I think it has game against so much of the field, and no match felt completely unwinnable. That being said, I want to find a spot for 2 Geist of St. Traft in the side. Reason being, I think burn has a reasonable matchup against us, and Delver, snap, and nacatl are all great targets for Searing Blood and Searing Blaze. I think that a fast clock like Geist of St. Traft, that blanks 8 of their cards and can go to town on them is probably strong enough to warrant sideboard play. The fact that it works with Feed the Clan is pretty cool too, and it seems like an auto win vs tron and uwr maybe. I know it was discussed earlier as to why Geist isn't what this deck wants but maybe just having a hexproof clock is good enough?
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Any snapcaster path to exile deck is going to be tough. One of the better ways to beat them is with non creature permanents (planeswalkers). Geist would probably be a good answer too, but you have to leave in some burn to remove snapcaster blocking.
Isochron Scepter with something useful is normally gg against UWR. They have no way to deal with this card and just loses to it. If there is another game afterwards they will/have to board in artefact hate just for Scepter, which is nice since it is otherwise a dead card.
@KeirandtheWhale, nice job
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
- Play your threats one at a time. Force the UWR pilot to out-tempo himself dealing with your clocks. Getting all your guys killed at once sucks, but an opponent sinking 4 mana into an uncounterable Wrath of God to kill a single Delver of Secrets shouldn't upset you in the slightest. So play them one at a time! More threats will come. So will Treasure Cruise, and most UWR lists haven't exactly adapted to the Delve meta and find themselves tremendously vulnerable to that kind of card advantage from Tempo. Steady, one-creature pressure wins the game against this deck.
- Play around their disruption. Gitaxian Probe obviously helps worlds here, but if you don't have it, UWR isn't that hard to read. If you know you can slide a threat in next turn, but not this one, save it. If you don't see an opportunity in the near future when you can slide your Goyf in under countermagic, and have no pressure on the table, just play it. UWR will draw lands forever as you draw one-mana Russet Wolves and Concentrate. Generally you'll have a hand full of gas and they'll have a grip of lands, and after you make them sub-optimally play all their cards, you'll be way up on advantage and can just roll over them.
- Maximize your own disruption. In other words, have a plan. Know (this knowledge best achieved by grinding) when you need to hold up mana to protect your threat, and when it's more important to save that Spell Snare for a Snapcaster Mage. If you have another threat in hand, let them deal with your guy. Let them tap out to counter your next threat if you can Treasure Cruise. I've won many games against UWR Control on just two or three lands to their 10. You're gaining 4 mana worth of tempo by Spell Piercing a Batterskull (not to mention a Sphinx's Revelation), and that particular interaction should stand for the whole matchup. Another good example: Path to Exile on Celestial Colonnade (which, incidentally, leaves you with a window for Tarmogoyf/Treasure Cruise). If they're throwing Electrolyze at you on your End Step, just take two damage. Save your countermagic for the cards that really matter, like those that remove your guys or put UWR up on cards. Be patient, and all those fancy cantrips will draw them a whole lot of Flooded Strand.
UWR Control gets a bit trickier if they have an intimate knowledge of your manabase, in which case you should hover around 3 perfect lands (i.e. complimentary Core Shocks and basic Island) to avoid getting cut off White or Red via Tectonic Edge. Luckily, the UWR pilot has no idea what the hell he's playing against most of the time.
In case that's what you meant by "UWR Midrange," the Restoration Angel-Blade Splicer deck poses much more of a threat. Against them, slam a threat very quickly and try to get in for as much damage as you can before they stabilize the board; after that, pour your resources into burning their face, but it's one of Counter-Cat's tougher matchups.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
For those who didnt catch yet, I am the friend that plays this deck (albeit a little bit different version than his) at his local FNM. But the thing is that I also test it on MTGO as well so I could see how it fares against the Magic online metagame.
So far I managed to 3-1 the only daily I could get the time to do last week with it. Losing R1 to storm but winning the next 3 ones to Mono-red, UBR control and scapeshift. Otherwise, I play it in the Tournament Practice room whenever I get the time.
On that matter, here are three pointers for those who want to run it in daily events or in other competitive modern events (a more complete post will follow when I will have the time in the next few days to play a 2nd daily event):
1. Lots, lots, lots of delver decks
If you go look at the winning decklists of daily events posted on the mothership you will see that multiple copies of the U/R Delver deck are present. As long as Treasure Cruise is Legal, it will be the deck to beat. Therefore:
-Deck building and sideboard must absolutely be done with this matchup in mind.
-Practice, practice, practice.
2. Burn
This matchup can be hell if you are not careful, especially with the high fetch/shock lands we run. Ashton's latest tech for burn is interesting as long as this deck is present in great numbers ( which is quite the case since it is so cheap to build online). The versions running treasure cruise are dangerous if you let them resolve it so keep that in mind.
3. Scapeshift
Recently, I heard that there has been versions of scapeshift that answered the delver decks by using Summoning trap, fetching Emrakul in play. When that happens, we are pretty much done for. If this tech takes off, be ready to play accordingly.
see you later !
Just 3-0'ed tonight's FNM with this list. (Ashton was here too, got 1-2 ed, lost to two ppl who were playing the decks I lent them ;-D Better luck next time !)
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Mistry Rainforest
3 Flooded Strand
CREATURES
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Serum Visions
2 Githaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
2 Remand
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
3 Treasure Cruise
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Lightning Helix
1 Forked Bolt
1 Pyroclasm
1 Spell Pierce
2 Boros Charm
2 Destructive Revelry
1 Spellskite
2 Negate
DISCLAIMER : This deck is tuned to our local metagame where there are not a whole lot of tier 1 decks. The one I play competitively is a bit different than that.
Games :
R1 : Mono Green Devotion
I got surprised as he played Leyline of Lifeforce on both games, which could have been trouble if he ramped, which he never could G1. Sided out most countermagic and went in burn mode. G2 went as I burned his mana dudes and died to Delver.
R2 : Mono Black midrange/control
I didnt know how to act against his deck at first. He runs a lot of spot removal + Mutilates, combined with gigantic beasts like demigod of revenge or huge drain spells (Sorin's Vengeance for example). G1 he killed many of my threats that I presented until I managed to stick 3 Wild Nacatls. He had a demigod of Revenge racing me but finally I managed to find multiple bolts and a Snapcaster to finish him off the turn before the Demigod kills me.
G2 was an interesting one. He used his removal to kill my stuff, I burned him whenever I could with bolts and helixes and Path to Exiled his threats. Which led to a standtstill. After many turns back and forth, I topdecked an Isochron Scepter with only a Remand and Snapcaster in hand. I casted the Scepter, Imprinting the Remand. This led me to draw 1 extra card every turn by remanding his spells or, if he chose to not cast anything, to cast my own snapcaster and then remanding. I managed to draw a good 15 extra cards on my way to win this game right on time.
R3 : Esper control
G1 was a long drawn out affair after a turn 1 delver on the draw. Some goyfs, a batterskull, multiple spirits and soldier tokens and a treasure cruise later, i managed to get him down to 1. But then he casted a Sphinx of the Steel Wind against my board of 1 Instectile Aberration, 1 Goyf and 1 Snapcaster. Coming my turn I hoped the topdeck would save me. aaaaaannnnnnndddd... Lightning bolt !!!!
G2 I mulliganed to 4 on the draw, keeping a 1 lander. I then proceded to come back from his early aggression with timely spells and topdecks until time is called. I managed to stabilize at 2 until an Helix arrived to keep me alive long enought for the extra turns to end.
What this tournament showed is that the deck can handle a good variety of strategies in the format. A good metagame call and proper Sideboard preparation will be key to this deck's success in Competitive tournaments.
Until then, I will get back to testing the competitive version of the deck on MTGO and figure out the last kinks to fix on the deck.
See Yall !
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Standard Mardu Midrange
Modern 4 Colour Delver, Naya Midrange
CommanderSidisi 1v1, Sliver Overlord, Intet the Dreamer, Mayael the Anima (shameless plug http://youtu.be/4zu4QRvGSo8)